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British ministers have indicated they are open to holding a new national inquiry into grooming gangs after days of resistance to the idea despite pressure from figures including tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Protection Minister Jess Phillips told Sky News that “nothing is off the table” when dealing with the scandal involving child sexual abuse by gangs in several English cities and towns.
Phillips said she would first hear from victims in a new committee formed by the government. She added: “If victims came to me on this victims' committee and said, 'Actually, we think there should be a national investigation into this,' I would listen to them.”
Her comments come before a vote on the investigation, after the Conservative Party forced the issue onto the parliamentary agenda.
The opposition party presented an amendment to the legislation on schools, which is being discussed on Wednesday afternoon. It was selected by the Speaker of the House of Commons for inclusion in the vote.
Mr. Prime Minister Keir Starmer He called it a “devastating amendment” because it would prevent the bill from being passed if passed, and urged the Conservatives to withdraw it. Labor MPs will be flogged for voting against the amendment.
While the government's large majority in the House of Commons means it is unlikely to pass, the vote will pave the way for opposition parties to issue new social media ads to draw attention to individual parliamentarians who voted against a new nationwide inquiry into the scandal.
Clip from the Conservative Party leader Kimmy Badenoch Musk retweeted the call for the inquiry during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday on X, with the caption “Well said.”
During the hearing, Starmer acknowledged in the House of Commons that there was a legitimate range of views on the need for a new inquiry.
He told MPs: “This is a really serious issue and we must focus clearly on the victims and survivors.” “There is no consistent view on the part of victims and survivors about holding an additional national investigation. There are conflicting views.”
Starmer warned that a new investigation could lead to further delays in tackling abuses. “The last investigation took seven years,” he said. “This will take us to 2031.”
But Downing Street later did not rule out the possibility of the government agreeing to a national investigation. “As the Prime Minister said in the House, reasonable people can agree or disagree about the merits of the national inquiry. . . The clear message we received from victims and survivors. . . “Do they want to see work, and this is what the government is focused on achieving.”
She added that Starmer had been “open” about the investigation.
Phillips responded after Musk criticized her for rejecting Oldham Council's calls for a government investigation into grooming gangs in the city. She said it would be better if the local authority implemented this.
Ministers repeatedly referred to Professor Alexis Jay's seven-year national inquiry which provided 20 recommendations, None of them were implemented by the previous Conservative government. Labor announced this week that it is implementing several recommendations, including making grooming an aggravating factor in sentencing for child sexual abuse.
Badenoch said on Wednesday that a national inquiry into grooming gangs was needed because “no one has connected the dots, no one has the final picture” and the scandal “is certainly still ongoing.”
She challenged Starmer on whether the “full extent of rape ring activity” was known, and said his resistance to a new investigation would raise “concern about a cover-up” among voters.
Starmer hit back, accusing her of jumping on the bandwagon, and said that “misinformation and mud-slinging” did not help victims.
The Prime Minister pointed out that Badenoch had never mentioned grooming gangs in the House of Commons in his eight years as an MP, despite having been Children's Minister and Women and Equalities Minister.
In a subsequent press conference with reporters, Badenoch's spokesman admitted that she had never spoken to any survivors. He could not determine whether she had raised the issue of grooming within the government.
